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Spokesman tells depositors to remain calm 

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Depositors should not be worried, Goverment Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou told the Cyprus News Agency on Sunday, in the wake of the developments at the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, which saw long queues of people on Friday in Coop Banks seeking to withdraw their money.

This prompted Central Bank Spokeswoman Aliki Stylianou to reiterate in a statement that deposits below €100,000 will be guaranteed even in a remote scenario of a liquidation of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank.

Faced with a provisioning shortfall of €600 million, the state-owned CCB launched in early March a tender for the sale of the bank of part of its operations. Hellenic Bank was the preferred bidder and agreed with the CCB to acquire a balance sheet of €10 billion with the state providing bonds of €3.5 billion and an asset protection scheme (APS) providing state guarantees for future unexpected losses on loans up to €2.6 billion. The APS should be approved by the parliament.

The European Commission cleared the transaction under state aid rules.

Prodromou told the CNA that on Monday President Nicos Anastasiades will have a meeting with DIKO President Nicolas Papadopoulos to discuss the bills to be put before the Parliament and especially the ESTIA scheme that relates to bad loans secured with primary residences.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades will attend the meeting. According to the spokesman, the President might have more meetings in the following days.

He told the CNA that depositors should not worry and recalled the statement issued by the Central Bank on the deposits that are guaranteeed.

Prodromou said that the Government had to take a very difficult but necessary decision as regards the Cyprus Cooperative Bank which will safeguards the economy’s continuous growth. He said that the Parliament will be the one to take the final decision and expressed his hope that the Parliamentarians will indeed make the necessary choice.

MPs are expected to vote on the package of bills next Friday

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